The underground market for criminally oriented generative AI has moved beyond the early hype surrounding ‘malicious chatbots.’ The gradual integration of AI as a productivity layer within cybercrime operations has become the dominant story, indicating that while the potential for fully autonomous AI hacking systems is possible, attackers are not embracing them as expected. Instead, threat actors are increasingly using AI to accelerate routine, but operationally significant, tasks to scale their operations. Drafting phishing lures, profiling targets, debugging code, generating forged documents, modifying malware, translating victim communications, and processing stolen data at scale were once time-consuming activities that AI has made significantly easier. AI does not replace cybercriminals; it lowers friction, increases speed, and expands the range of actors able to perform tasks that previously required more time, skill, or external support.
Read more…
Source: Rapid7 News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Island hopping: The latest security threat you should be aware of
July 1, 2019
While island hopping sounds like a great way to spend a holiday in Thailand or Greece, the term also refers to an advanced cyber attack technique. Though it’s not a new phenomenon, this type of attack increased in prevalence in 2018 and will likely become more and more common. The name ‘island hopping’ comes from a WWII ...
- New Dridex Variant Slips By Anti-Virus Detection
June 28, 2019
A never-before-seen Dridex variant has been spotted in phishing emails using anti-virus detection evasion tactics. Researchers have spotted a variant of the Dridex banking trojan with new obfuscation capabilities that help it skirt anti-virus detection. While Dridex has been around since 2011, researchers told Threatpost Friday that they recently spotted phishing emails distributing a never-before-seen variant of the ...
- Riltok mobile Trojan: A banker with global reach
June 25, 2019
Riltok is one of numerous families of mobile banking Trojans with standard (for such malware) functions and distribution methods. Originally intended to target the Russian audience, the banker was later adapted, with minimal modifications, for the European “market.” The bulk of its victims (more than 90%) reside in Russia, with France in second place (4%). ...
- Anonymous hacker exposed after dropping USB drive while throwing Molotov cocktail
June 24, 2019
In a bizarre investigation, Belgium police have identified a member of the Anonymous Belgium hacker collective while investigating an arson case at a local bank. The perpetrator, a 35-year-old man from the Belgian city of Roeselare, was initially arrested after throwing a Molotov cocktail at the Crelan Bank office in Rumbeke, a suburb of Roeselare, back ...
- Plurox: Modular backdoor
June 18, 2019
In February this year, a curious backdoor passed across our virtual desk. The analysis showed the malware to have a few quite unpleasant features. It can spread itself over a local network via an exploit, provide access to the attacked network, and install miners and other malicious software on victim computers. What’s more, the backdoor ...
- Houdini malware targets victims with keylogger, online bank account theft tools
June 17, 2019
A new variant of the Houdini malware has been detected in campaigns against financial institutions and their customers. Last week, cybersecurity researchers from Cofense said in a blog post that the new strain of Houdini — also known as HWorm — was released by its author on June 2, 2019. Dubbed WSH Remote Access Tool (RAT), it took the ...